Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) presidential candidate, Gen Mugisha Muntu, on Wednesday said he lacks sufficient evidence to contest President Museveni’s victory in the January 15 election, despite disagreeing with the outcome.
Speaking to journalists at ANT headquarters in Bukoto, Kampala, the former military chief said his party was unable to deploy agents across all 50,000 polling stations, limiting their capacity to gather credible reports needed to challenge the results.
‘We weren’t organized enough to appoint agents to over 50,000 polling stations; when you have DR forms and reports directly from where agents were, you create a body of credible evidence that enables you to proceed. Unfortunately, we don’t have that,’ Gen Muntu said.
He stressed that ANT intends to build its capacity for future elections, including training and deploying agents capable of monitoring electoral malpractices such as intimidation and bribery.
‘The reality of the matter is that we are dealing with a regime that doesn’t want anyone else in power, at any cost. They don’t care about the country; there’s no doubt about that,’ he added.
Gen Muntu also highlighted what he described as the problematic use of public funds to influence voting, warning that Uganda is sitting on a ‘volcano’ of frustration and anger fueled by population growth, unemployment, and poverty.
‘The use of money has become a plague, which I really hope is going to end up causing this country deep problems where we’re heading,’ he said.
The ANT leader said that while the electoral process has not delivered the change many Ugandans hoped for, his party would support any opposition candidate or party with credible evidence to challenge election results in court.
‘Anybody who has evidence will have our backup. Once you’re factual. if they have reports from, for example, 45,000 polling stations, it gives a good way forward of using that tool as a weapon to further the struggle, whether in court or to convince the people,’ he said.
On Saturday, Justice Simon Byabakama, chairperson of Uganda’s Electoral Commission, declared Museveni the winner of the January 15 presidential vote with 7,946,772 votes, representing 71.65 percent, securing a seventh five-year term.
Bobi Wine, Museveni’s closest challenger, came second with 2,741,238 votes, or 24.72 percent. Turnout was 52.50 percent of Uganda’s 21.6 million registered voters, with 275,353 ballots recorded as invalid.
On ANT’s potential alignment with the Inter-Party Organization for Dialogue (IPOD), Gen Muntu said the party would decide collectively after holding a general assembly.
‘We thank God that we now have a representative in parliament. After the elections, we shall have a general assembly of all party members and we will decide if the party will be joining IPOD,’ he said.